Employers
who train their own staff perform consistently better than other types of
provider, according to a report by the Training Standards Council.
The survey
of 492 companies shows that 46 per cent of grades awarded to employers were
good or outstanding, and only 11 per cent were less than satisfactory.
These
figures compare with averages of 34 per cent and 18 per cent, respectively, for
other types of providers, such as further education colleges, local authorities
and training consultancies.
David Sherlock,
chief inspector of the adult learning inspectorate, which replaced the Training
Standards Council in April 2001, explained that there are several reasons why
employers are better at training.
He said,
“Employers have a long-term commitment to staff. They tend to be larger
companies with a heavy investment in training. They are often ideally placed to
do the work-based training and have the necessary training equipment.
But the
research also highlights a decline in the quality of training in the UK workplace.
More than half of the training organisations surveyed, were awarded at least
one unsatisfactory grade at their first inspection in 2001 – a 10 per cent
increase on the previous year.
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Sherlock
admitted that the results were disappointing. “Overall, these results show that
training organisations are not performing well enough,” he said.
By Karen
Higginbottom
